By
Aaron Kirchfeld
Equipped with batons, riot gear and water canons, German and foreign
KFOR troops carried out a “riot control exercise“ in Prizren as German
Defense Minister Peter Struck looked on during his one-day visit on Monday
to the Bundeswehr soldiers stationed in Kosovo.
The new gear and
training exercises are part of an attempt by the NATO-led force to avoid
the same problems that occurred during a violent three-day riot in March.
Ethnic Albanians attacked the minority Serbs and burned houses and a
church to revenge what they claimed was the intentional drowning of two
Albanian children. The unrest, which claimed 19 lives, was the worst since
the province's 1998-99 war.
Following the riots, some UN officials
accused the German army of not responding to calls for help from the
overwhelmed United Nations police force. They also said the Bundeswehr was
inadequately trained to handle such uprisings.
Earlier in the year, the
Defense Ministry praised Germany's response to the riots and Struck
rejected any criticism, saying that there had been no deaths in the areas
under Bundeswehr control. But in August, it became public that one Serb
died in German-controlled territory. Critics said the military had tried
to cover up the death, but the Defense Ministry argued that it had simply
been unclear whether the death was actually in UN, or German KFOR
territory.
After criticism arose at home, Struck presented a report to
the Bundestag parliament at the end of September. He said that
miscommunication, and not intentional actions, had led to mistakes in
Kosovo. He said one reason for the confusion between NATO and UN staff was
that people stationed in Kosovo weren't proficient enough in English.
Struck said soldiers, and in particular officers, should be required to
take additional English courses.
In Kosovo on Monday, Struck came to
the defense of his troops, saying it was not their job to protect the
police. But he added that important lessons had been learned from the
unrest and German troops would now undergo training similar to that of
riot police. The German parliament also amended a law against the use of
chemical weapons last week to allow the Bundeswehr to use tear gas.
Currently, there are around 17,000 Kosovo Force troops in the province
of Serbia and Montenegro. On Wednesday, an additional 360 French
paratroops landed in the area to help ahead of a general election in
Kosovo on Oct. 23.
